Tuesday, December 01, 2015
7:44:57 PM EDT

Cloud Computing Candidate

by
James Brown

Stop Loss: $76.65
Target(s): To Be Determined
Current Option Gain/Loss: Unopened
Average Daily Volume = 3.8 million
Entry on December -- at $---.--
Listed on December 01, 2015
Time Frame: Exit PRIOR to February option expiration
New Positions: Yes, see below

Trade Description:
Cloud computing stocks continue to capture investor imaginations and their investment dollars. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, Salesforce.com has become a huge player in the cloud computing industry. The stock has shown significant strength with shares up +36% year to date.

CRM is part of the technology sector. According to the company,
"Salesforce is the world's #1 CRM company. Our industry-leading Customer Success Platform has become the world's leading enterprise cloud ecosystem. Industries and companies of all sizes can connect to their customers in a whole new way using the latest innovations in cloud, social, mobile and data science technologies with the Customer Success Platform."

CRM's revenues have been consistently growing in the mid +20% range the last few quarters. Their Q4 revenues were up +26%. Q1 revenues were +23%. Q2 revenues, announced in August, were a bit better at +23.5% and management raised their Q3 and 2016 guidance.

Their most recent earnings report was announced on November 18th. Q3 earnings beat estimates at $0.21 a share. Revenues grew +23.7% to $1.71 billion, just ahead of estimates. Management continued to provide an optimistic outlook and raised both their 2016 and 2017 guidance above analysts' estimates.

Shares gapped open higher the next day following its Q3 results and improved guidance. Since then the stock has slowly consolidated lower with very little selling pressure. The point & figure chart is bullish and has seen its price target rise from $85 to $98. Meanwhile Wall Street is bullish too. Multiple firms have upgraded their price targets on CRM with recent price targets at $87, $93, and $96.

We like today's bounce and how CRM has broken the very short-term trend of lower highs. Tonight we are suggesting a trigger to buy calls at $81.35. Our time frame is several weeks. CRM reports earnings in February. We are listing the February calls.

Trigger @ $81.35

- Suggested Positions -

Buy the FEB $85 CALL (CRM160219C85) current ask $2.69
option price is a current quote and not a suggested entry price.

Entry disclaimer: To avoid an unfavorable entry point, we will not launch a new play if the stock gaps open more than $1.00 past our suggested entry point.